Advertising

How to get started

Create a LinkedIn Page

First, build your company's brand and build trust with your community.

Campaign Manager

Second, create your first ad campaign on LinkedIn's ad platform.

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Ad formats

Sponsored Content

Reach and engage a professional audience in the LinkedIn feed.

Sponsored Messaging

Engage your prospects where professional conversations happen.

Dynamic Ads

Engage prospects with ads automatically personalized to them.

Text Ads

Self-service ad formats to create campaigns in minutes.

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Pricing

Discover how much it costs to advertise on LinkedIn.

Targeting

Reach the people who matter most to your business.

Lead Generation

Qualified leads come from a quality audience on LinkedIn.

Boosting

An easy way to reach new audiences by amplifying your best content.

Conversion Tracking

Measure the true impact of your LinkedIn ads.

Reporting & Analytics

Measure the ROI of your LinkedIn ads.

Objective Based Advertising

Choose your LinkedIn ad format based on your objective and customer journey.

Ad Tips & Best Practices

Why LinkedIn

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Online Advertising

Definition, Formats, and Steps to Create Online Ad Campaigns

Advertise on LinkedIn
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Online advertising is now the dominant channel for global media expenditures. B2B marketers must, therefore, learn how to use online ads to grow their business.

 

This in-depth guide will explain what is online advertising for business and the popular ad types or formats B2B marketers use in media plans. We’ll also discuss crucial steps to develop an effective online advertising campaign for business.

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What is online advertising?

Online business advertising is a prominent form of marketing that uses mobile and desktop platforms to deliver trackable and measurable campaigns via social media, search engines, video streaming channels, and email to reach targeted customers. It allows businesses to deeply engage with target audiences via online ad campaigns that help to increase brand awareness, generate high-quality leads, and drive sales or ecommerce conversions.

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Why is online advertising important for marketers?

The purchase decision-making process is longer and more complicated than ever, and sales teams must convince multiple stakeholders that they have the best solution. Target buyers also prefer to do their own online research in the awareness and consideration phases of the sales funnel before connecting with salespeople to make their final purchase decision. B2B online business advertising casts a wide net – attracting and nurturing prospective buyers early on and supporting their decision-making process at every digital touchpoint.

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How much does online advertising cost?

Online business advertising platforms offer cost-effective payment methods tailored to any B2B marketer’s campaign budget and goals – enabling businesses of all sizes to connect with their target audience. Online advertising costs can be purchased on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis, measured by cost-per-click or CPC, or on a cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) basis. Both options are available via programmatic and auction-based delivery methods, which we will explain shortly.

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Types of online advertising formats

Review the online business advertising formats and types below to inform the media planning and buying process.

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Search engine ads

Paid search engine advertising allows B2B marketers to target text-based ads to audiences searching for keywords related to their business via a search engine like Bing. Marketers can set a maximum bid or cost-per-click (CPC) price they are willing to pay for these ads in an ad auction, where advertisers only pay when someone clicks on their ad. 

 

For example, a business selling accounting software can bid on keywords like “Accounting software” or “Small business tax returns.” They’d also create ad text, including a headline and a few lines of copy with a link to appear alongside search engine results whenever someone searches for those keywords.

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Social media ads

When advertising online, B2B marketers can target users on social media networks like LinkedIn via various ad formats. Social media ad types include online Text, Display, Video, Sponsored Content, and Conversational Message ads. We will explain these types of online advertising formats shortly. 

 

Social media ads can also be purchased via an ad auction and developed within a campaign management tool, enabling B2B marketers to select target audiences and track online advertising performance – optimizing their campaign bids and strategies in real-time.

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Dynamic ads

Online dynamic advertising allows marketers to enage their target customers with automatically personalized messages and imagery. 

 

Dynamic Ad formats pull in individual LinkedIn user profile data, like their photos, company name, and job title. These automated display ads enhance the user experience and help advertisers scale custom-tailored campaigns that build brand awareness, drive traffic, and convert more prospects.

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Video ads

Brands looking to build awareness and loyalty invest in online Video Advertising strategies and formats to share their story with sight, sound, and motion. LinkedIn online video ads appear in a user’s feed via desktop and mobile screens, allowing marketers to engage and deepen relationships with new prospects.

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Sponsored content ads

Sponsored Content Ads, or Native Ads, look and feel less like traditional online ad spots by blending in with the existing content on the web page. LinkedIn’s Native Ad formats, for instance, improve the overall user experience while engaging prospects to build brand awareness or drive more leads.

 

Marketers can promote branded LinkedIn posts that went viral to reach and engage more users, highlight new products or share best practices to drive interest and engagement, or attract registrations for upcoming events.

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Email or conversational message ads

A choose-your-own-path Conversation Ad experience lets B2B marketers automatically start quality InMail conversations with targeted LinkedIn users. This email ad format is created via easy-to-use message templates that drive high-quality leads into the sales pipeline via auto-generated qualifying questions within a user’s InMail.

Multiple call-to-action buttons are auto-displayed within the same Conversation Ad message, allowing prospects to access related content and offers, such as event signups or ebook downloads via Lead Gen Forms. These forms come pre-filled with accurate LinkedIn profile data and let members input their professional info with just a few clicks, creating a fast, easy lead collection workflow.

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Retargeting

Account-based marketing (ABM) on LinkedIn lets marketers automatically upload a contact or company list of decision-makers at their highest-valued accounts. Coupled with LinkedIn Retargeting Ads, ABM campaign ads are auto-delivered to matched audiences based on their meaningful online brand interactions and behaviors.

 

Retargeting uses data about a target buyer’s previous interactions with ads on platforms like LinkedIn. It helps B2B marketers strengthen customer relationships using more specific and relevant social media ad messaging.

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Step by step guide to advertising on LinkedIn

The steps outlined below will help B2B marketers develop, launch, and track online advertising campaign performance.

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Launching an online ad campaign with LinkedIn

Developing and launching online advertising for business campaigns requires research, planning, and time. Businesses advertising online should learn the fundamentals of different ad campaign formats, media planning strategies, and performance monitoring tactics.

Setting appropriate B2B ad campaign goals and objectives for building brand awareness, generating high-quality leads, or driving more conversions online is equally important. As is selecting the right online advertising platforms to reach and engage target audiences to meet those goals and objectives.

LinkedIn Ads offers multiple online business advertising formats and solutions to plan, schedule, and track campaign performance – helping marketers reach and engage with over 850 million professional users worldwide.

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Visit LinkedIn Advertising to learn how to get started with online ads.

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